Page:The little blue devil (IA littlebluedevil00mackiala).pdf/143

of each other. No real need to worry . . . but the heat made one feel slack. . . .

He was in luck. A Dutch boat was due next day, and he could certainly get on board her somehow—as a passenger, in the last resort, though he would prefer to work his way.

The rain kept on. The skies were wet, soft grey, but most other things were vivid green. He could distinguish the roof of the Charbonnels’ house, in among the green of the higher shore. He wished he couldn’t. . . .

The pearling fleet had just come in, and the town was very lively, but Tony was not in the mood to meet his friends. He brooded alone, with out-thrust jaw, and eyebrows making one black bar over his smouldering eyes. Towards evening there was an interruption; Charbonnel came very quickly down the street, his sallow face drawn and stricken. He came straight for Tony, who sat quite still, ready to spring; but the other was full of a different purpose.

“Where is Liane?” he said. His voice was low, and quite hoarse.

Tony stared. “How should I know?”

“Where is she? She is gone—she ran away from the house———”

“My God, in this rain? Why———?”

“In this rain—I thought she could not go far. And I waited for her to come back—and she has been away an hour—and———”

“Pull yourself together, man. She can’t have gone far.”

Tony had risen. “She’s probably in the scrub below your house”—“hiding from you,” he thought, but only a devil could have spoken the truth to Charbonnel just then.

“Let’s go and find her.”

Charbonnel had stopped shaking; he still looked dazed,